Admiral O’Connor’s question was simple
enough, but not one that Erin Keller could easily answer.“Not much,” she admitted.“We’ve known them as allies of the Romulans
for over fifty years, but first contact didn’t take place until stardate
47111.1—in the M’Kieru Sector, of all places.Their Homeworld is an M-class planet called Garid, located about
twenty-five light years from here.I
guess their entire society is based upon the dictates of the Five Scrolls.Not much is known about them, and at this
time, it’s not really important…

“Until recently, the Garidians have been
loyal allies of the Romulans—but after the attack on Aurillac VII two years
ago, they realized the Romulans were not viable allies, and have been trying to
distance themselves from the Empire ever since.And when the Romulan Empire collapsed earlier this year… we all
know what happened.”

Bator nodded agreeably.“And it should be noted, that while the Garidians distanced themselves
from the Romulan Empire, they have not distanced themselves from
Romulan technology.That Warbird is
comparable to a D’deridex class ship.”

O’Connor nodded her understanding—it was a very convincing
maneuver—and for a brief moment Keller almost felt safe under her
command.But then O’Connor huffed,
mulled over her options, and then finally made her decision: “Arm photon
torpedoes.”

“Photon torpedoes?” Bator repeated skeptically.“I should remind you, the Starlight
is equipped with a full compliment of transphasic torpedoes.”

“Don’t get smart with me,” snapped O’Connor.“Just arm the torpedoes.”

Bator groused inwardly for a moment, but said nothing to continue
his protest.Instead, he did as he was
ordered—and if it got them all killed, at least Admiral O’Connor would go down
with the ship.“Torpedoes armed.”

“That wasn’t so difficult, now was it?” asked O’Connor before
tapping her communicator.“O’Connor to
Commander Harson!What is your status?”

Harrison quickly tapped the appropriate button on his suit’s
forearm and replied, “Commander Reinbold and Lieutenant Johnson have nearly
completed making modifications to the vessel’s bioelectric field.”

“I don’t know how much time you’re going to have,” O’Connor
said.

“We’re going to need at least another five minutes,” Reinbold
estimated.“Possibly more.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” O’Connor groused, “but I can’t
guarantee anything!”

And that much was obvious the moment O’Connor signed off.The bioship promptly rumbled beneath
Harrison’s feet, and the already faint lighting dimmed.Though it was not likely to do him much
good, Harrison immediately plucked the phaser from his belt.Perhaps the added sense of security was all
he really needed…

“Direct hit,” announced Bator.“Shields down to ninety-one percent.”

O’Connor nodded.“Mr. Bator,” she said evenly, “return fire!”

“Aye!”

Within moments, a string of fiery photon torpedoes emerged from
the Starlight’s torpedo bay; they fiercely charged across the viewscreen
and into the Garidian vessel’s shields, causing a considerable explosion—but
nominal damage. The Garidian vessel quickly came about and hunted down the Starlight
with a vengeance, firing countless streams of green-yellow energy in the
vessel’s direction.

O’Connor’s heart was racing.It had been many years since she commanded a starship during battle… and
she feared her skills had deteriorated, but thankfully, the Garidians weren’t
very good with their targeting sensors.Of their numerous volleys, only one grazed the Starlight’s
shields.

“Target their weapons array!” O’Connor ordered as she watched the Garidian
vessel dramatically waltz across the view screen.As far as she could tell, they were attempting to bring
themselves nearer to the bioship.

“Target locked,” called out Bator.

O’Connor waited a brief moment for the Garidian vessel to get back
into her line sight—she wanted to see this battle played out to its finish,
because nobody was going to take that bioship from her.But O’Connor’s need for theatrics was her
greatest error.The Garidians fired
first, and O’Connor watched in horror as the yellow-green burst of energy
hurtled at them.“Evasive maneuvers!”
she cried, but her actions were too little, too late.

The ship rocked violently as it absorbed the impact of the
Garidian weapon.O’Connor clung onto
her chair for dear life, but the energy created by the impact was so great, she
eventually lost her grip and went careening to the floor.Within seconds, an odd black haze encroached
upon her vision, and she was finding it very difficult to return to her chair.

“Shields are down to seventy percent,” announced Lieutenant
Bator.He was either unaware of
O’Connor’s predicament, or didn’t care much for his commanding officer, because
there was almost no concern in his voice.

“The Garidians are coming around for another pass,” Drayge
announced.

“If we were to arm transphasic torpedoes, it is likely our
offensive would prove more effective,” Bator said moments later.

O’Connor heard most of the Phobian’s words, but her continued
struggle on the floor kept her from responding coherently.Instead she grunted something along the
lines of, “Do it,” and then continued to work her way back toward the command
chair.

Bator’s hands quickly flew over the controls, and before the
Garidians had another opportunity to fire, a full spread of transphasic
torpedoes stormed out of the Starlight’s torpedo bay.O’Connor watched as the golden dots of light
hurtled toward the Garidian ship, and couldn’t help but smile when the forward
section of the vessel burst into flames.“Those are some pretty good torpedoes,” she promptly proclaimed.

“The Garidians’ tactical array has been destroyed,” said Bator,
oblivious to O’Connor’s commentary.

“They are retreating,” added Keller.

O’Connor was struck with surprise.She had expected to be destroyed, given the general level of idiocy
on the Starlight.Still, she was
not about to complain.Finally able to
grab hold of the command chair, she slowly heaved her bulbous body into its
grasps and made herself comfortable.“Stand down from red alert,” she ordered, “and see that the bioship is
secured.”

CAPTAIN’S LOG, STARDATE 74453.6: We have successfully secured the alien bioship, and are
currently en route to the Klingon Science Station at Chion’doxa, where it will
be transferred to the USS Blair
for further analysis.

It had been an incredibly long day, and
Kendall Johnson was ready for it to come to a close.His performance on the bioship had been acceptable, and for the
most part, his comments were intelligent.But there were moments—especially in the beginning—when he failed utterly
in his quest for perfection… and for some strange reason, those few
moments of doubt were the ones that kept replaying in Kendall’s mind.

All I need is a good night’s
rest to clear my mind, he
decided as he made his way through the myriad corridors of deck four.Sleep often cleared Kendall’s mind—and when
it didn’t, sleep just as easily became an excellent way to avoid the problems
plaguing his mind in the first place.But
since these problems were relatively minor, Kendall suspected his night would
be pleasantly restful.

He walked a little further before coming
upon an intersection in the corridor.Kendall was just about to make a sharp right-hand turn, but his course
was summarily diverted when he glimpsed Commander Reinbold up ahead.

“Lieutenant,” she called out warmly—she even
quickened her pace to join up with Kendall.

He paused, and waited for Megan to approach,
and then acted as nonchalant as possible.“Yes?”

“Good work back on the bioship,” she
commended.“I don’t know if I could
have gotten all that done without you.”

Kendall could feel his face blushing.“It was nothing, really.You had everything under control…”

“Still,” said Megan pleasantly, “you made my job a whole lot
easier.We make a good team, you and
I…”

Kendall smiled.Well, he thought
he smiled; that was what he intended to do, anyway.He wasn’t sure exactly what was on
his face, but since Megan didn’t recoil in disgust, Kendall decided that it
wasn’t anything too terrible.He wanted
to say something more, since Megan had provided such a wonderful segue to do
so, but Kendall found his brain was as dysfunctional as his facial
muscles.Nothing new there…

“Well,” Megan finally said, clasping her hands together, “I’d
better get going.When we reach
Chion’doxa, I’m going to be transferring to the Blair… so I should
probably go and gather my belongings.”

Kendall nodded agreeably.“Good idea.”

Megan lingered for a moment longer, apparently waiting for Kendall
to say something more.She smiled
pleasantly, smacked her lips, sighed, and finally began to retreat.“See you around,” she said softly.

Kendall nodded blankly.“Bye…”

And then he kicked himself for being so stupid…

For as long as he could remember, Sor Tovar had considered
Ambassador Kaid an honorable and revered member of the Velora Aggregate.A man who knew what was best for their
people, and had did whatever was necessary to achieve that state of
perfection.But in light of recent
events, Tovar was beginning to have some doubts.“Tell me, Vakal, what is more important than the expansion of
the Aggregate?” he suddenly prompted from his station behind Kaid’s vacant
chair.

The question had caught Vakal by surprise.“Admittedly, very few things come to mind,”
he said quietly.

Tovar nodded.“Much as I
suspected.” He tapped a few commands into his workstation, and then approached
Vakal.“The Ambassador is beginning to
think otherwise,” he whispered, though his words were conveniently loud enough
for most of the bridge officers to hear.“He believes the Velora are losing their way…”

Vakal immediately furrowed his brow.“Are you certain?”

Tovar nodded.“He said it
himself.I believe he is even having
doubts about our mission… but we need that bioship…”

“After the Garidians attacked our base last month, I believe that
much is obvious.We need new weapons to
counter these new threats…”

“I agree.”

The sentiment surprised Tovar, and he immediately came about to
see Ambassador Kaid standing near his command chair.Though he had no idea how much of the conversation Kaid had
heard, Tovar suspected the Ambassador had heard far too much.Nevertheless, he decided to downplay the
conversation as little more than banter.“And we will be getting that new weapon promptly,” he said.“We should be entering the M’Kieru Sector in
less than a minute.”

Kaid nodded approvingly.“Where is the bioship?”

Tovar hastily returned to his post and checked the sensors.What he found was marginally
disturbing.“The vessel is no longer in
the M’Kieru Sector.”

“Where is it?” asked Kaid.“To the Garidians have it?”

That had been Tovar’s initial thought, but when he conferred with
the sensors, he was provided only more questions.“No… the bioship appears to have been intercepted by a Federation
starship.They are currently heading
for a Klingon base in the Chion’doxa System.”

Kaid sighed wearily.“That
is in the heart of the Klingon Empire,” he soon realized.

“Shall I set an intercept course?” asked Tovar, his fingers poised
to make the necessary course corrections—but to his chagrin, Kaid’s answer was
swift in coming.In fact, the
Ambassador seemed to ponder their course of action for a long while…. It was
almost as if he were considering something other than retrieving the
bioship.

“Both the Velora and the Garidians have been attempting to capture
that bioship for several months now, and neither one of us has managed to
succeed,” Kaid said slowly.“But the
Federation comes along out of nowhere, and captures it in a matter of hours.They must know something we
don’t.If we are to succeed, we
need that knowledge…”

Tovar could sense what Kaid was getting at.Perhaps the Ambassador wasn’t as soft as he
appeared….“Captain Pentara’s ship was
disabled by the Federation,” he gleaned from sensors.“They’re currently holding position 2.4 light years away.”

“Hail them,” said Kaid immediately.

Tovar complied, and seconds later, Captain Pentara appeared on the
viewscreen.Her face was smudged with
ash, her hair was soiled with dirt and other debris, and she was clearly not
happy to see Kaid.“If you are here to
gloat, Ambassador, I would not be so quick to do so.”

Kaid shook his head.“No,
Captain, I am not here to gloat.In
fact… I have a proposition for you…”